Digital Natives - Attitude or Competence?

A valued colleague, Margaret Hansen (http://www.m2hnursing.com/) sent me a link to http://stigmergicweb.org/2006/10/20/the-myth-of-the-digital-native "Myth of the Digital Native". The author, Bob Wall, is a public school teacher in Saskatchewan. Bob questions the implied attribute of technical comptence that goes with the term "digital native".

I agree with many of his observations, particularly as I look at my students who range from 19 to adults embarking on a second career. While many of them are very comfortable using email, surfing, etc from the perspective of consumers, they are very much newbies when it comes to learning new applications, formulating search strategies and critically evaluating resources.

I don't know if a regional thing, but my undergrad nursing students seem uncomfortable with the idea of learning or interacting in Second Life, and very few will admit to playing games. Most of them are avid Facebook users, but listservs, online discussion boards and blogs are foreign to many of them.

He cites a Presnky quote in his posting: "Lest this perspective appear radical, rather than just descriptive, let me highlight some of the issues. Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to "serious" work."

Yes, they scan, write very informally and seem more interested in easily obtained, superficial information. Wikipedia is a primary information source for many of them. If I wander about our computer lab while lecturing, many have multiple windows open and flip between IM, email, Facebook, and my lecture notes. The biggest advantage I think the "natives" have is the willingness to experiment and a lack of fear they'll "break something" and they view electronic communciation and collaboration as normal rather than something new.

The caveat to using the term "digital natives" is to remember you can't make the assumption that comfort in the electronic environment and williness to explore equates with information literacy or technical competence.